Improving the supply chain performance of the on- site ...

1 1 Improving the supply chain performance of the on-site daily lectures in an academic institution. Evangelos Ergen, Issue date: 04 May 2011 Abstract: The emergence of entrepreneurial oriented academic institutions is expected to be the next challenge for the education itself in global terms. Recent facts in United Kingdom, the pole of qualitative education, prove that more convergence has to take place among academia and the market. In order for an academic institution to acquire a market-driven orientation, this sets among others the implementation of operations through strategic and operational logistics approach. In other words, the essence of supply chain , transforms the institute to a performance -driven academic organisation. This paper is an attempt to analyse and evaluate the supply chain performance of the daily lectures as an academic activity in an educational institute, from the perspective of administrative procedures.

2 There is an effort to identify any possible malfunctions or areas that could be improved regarding the performance on the final delivered service to the students, which is considered the class . The backbone of any academic program is the delivery of its modules, and how these are structured and communicated-transferred to the students. At this point, in an academic institution, there are three major entities involved and these are: (a) the academic staff, (b) the students, and (c) the administration. The contribution of the last is crucial since it undertakes the full responsibility of creating and maintaining the framework where the academics and students will meet for the educational process. Literature review is accommodated in all phases of this analysis and evaluation.

3 A special focus has been given to the review of non-financial performance measurements, mostly related to issues of customer service and procurement. We acknowledge that this study has to cope with a number of difficulties since there were no adequate literature findings on logistics in education. Nevertheless, a synthesis of different, but close-related sectors, were additionally adopted and researched. Furthermore, they were combined with the education and the delivery of classes especially, in order to support the different aspects of the supply chain performance . In this study, it is aimed to introduce a number of key performance indicators which could critically affect the performance of the institution. Through the acquisition and implementation of such indicators, it is expected to increase the services offered not only to students, and create added value to the service experience of education.

4 Moreover, such approach could create opportunities for further improvements in parallel areas and meet future challenges. The main idea is to support the business plan of the institution by transforming its strategies to everyday measurable acts. In an environment of continuous changes, it is rather obligatory for academic institutions to accommodate benchmarking and performance indicators as a mean for long-term success and sustainable development. Keywords: supply chain , performance indicators, KPIs, academic institution, non-financial measures 1. INTRODUCTION In this section we aim to give a description of the defined service which is the delivery of the modules and the supply chain of it. In the next section there is an attempt to demonstrate the upstream and downstream supply chain of the academic institution, focusing on the service experience that this paper stands for.

5 In section three, there is an analysis and evaluation of the areas of customer service and procurement which are considered as the most significant of the specific supply chain . The analysis is performed from the logistics point of view. In the fourth section, there is an extended literature review on non-financial measures and performance indicators. In the fifth section this study concentrates in the recommendation of key performance indicators (KPIs) and examines their impact on the academic institution. To be precise, there is a recommendation on a set of KPIs as tools for performance measurement which are expected to improve the service experience of the delivery of lectures and identify the strengths and weaknesses of the administrative procedures.

6 2 The defined service is the delivery of the lectures to students and the environment that embraces this educational process from the administrative perspective. There is a focus on all aspects that have to be present in order to maintain the quality and the serviceability in this daily process, and achieve high standards throughout the whole academic year. In order to better realise the supply chain of the lectures, right below is given a model of how this is perceived: Figure 1. The operation of lectures through academic time The educational service experience is a timeless operation. Nevertheless, in order to better approach it, for measuring purposes, we have split it into specific periods, which are: (a) the academic day, (b) the academic week, (c) the academic semester, and (d) the academic year.

7 This segmentation helps later in the use of key performance indicators. The core operation of this experience is the lecture. Actually, the lecture is part of a bigger supply chain the one of the supply chain of an academic course. The academic course includes a number of modules and each module is delivered to the students through the delivery of the lectures, which we try to measure in this paper. There is an attempt to illustrate this chain in the diagram right below: 3 Figure 2. The immediate supply chain of an academic course (in brief) The actual delivery of the course includes a predefined number of modules. Each module is transferred to students through a series of lectures. The lectures have specific duration and are taken place on daily basis.

8 Therefore, there is a clear relation among: lectures-modules-courses. In this study we focus in the first tier of the chain which is the lectures. 2. THE UPSTREAM AND DOWNSTREAM supply chain On the one side, the education process involves moving forward people, services and information. On the other side, the participating entities in this non-stop process have to be coordinated for effective performance and measurable results. According to Aho (European Commission, 2006), to achieve innovation this implies business performance , which should be measurable. Therefore, you cannot evaluate if you cannot measure. First of all, there is an effort to illustrate the upstream and downstream supply chain of the lectures delivery in the institution.

9 The internal supply chain refers to the internal operations that take place for the delivery of classes on a daily basis. As downstream supply chain is considered mainly the students body but also all other entities that participate directly or indirectly (lecturers, alumni, parents etc.). Due to the sector particularities, since this study approaches the supply chain from the administrative side, the academic staff could be considered as part of the downstream supply chain as well. As upstream supply chain could be defined the network of suppliers of the institution in terms of any kind of material related to the premises and the tools used during the lectures (audio-visual equipment, technical material, use of other material, premises, clean and safety etc.)

10 4 Figure 3. The upstream and downstream supply chain from the lectures perspective Adoption of information technology and late evolvements are well-adopted by the institution contributing in the development of logistics. The first-tier suppliers considered as a top priority of the institution and a stable network is established which is on close cooperation with the administrative staff. Priorities are: fast and effective service, cost control and qualitative approach. The aim is to deliver classes with convenience, distinctiveness and quality. There is an effort of shifting the channel power from suppliers to the institution, through a specific framework of cooperation which corresponds to the good communication and clear demands.